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Sunday, 17 May 2015

IMPOUNDED KING’S JET FINALLY RELEASED

King Mswati III of Swaziland’s private luxury jet,
impounded by a court in Canada in a dispute
over alleged unpaid debts,
has been released after the Swazi Government paid US$3.5 million as a financial
guarantee for the King.

The money was finally confirmed as deposited on 13
May 2015 after nearly a month of wrangling. It has not been independently
verified but it has been reported that the Swazi Government, which is broke, had
trouble raising the necessary money, which is about E35 million in emalangeni,
the Swazi local currency.

To put this sum into context, the European
Union gives Swaziland about E20 million a year to pay school
fees for all children in grade one at Swaziland’s 588primary schools, as part
of the kingdom’s free primary education programme.

The plane is believed to have left Canada on Friday
(15 May 2015).

The jet had been attached in Ontario, Canada, by a
court since January 2015 in a dispute about unpaid bills for upgrades and
modifications to the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (also known as an MD-87).

A company called SG Air has taken Inchatsavane, a
Swaziland-based company which is solely-owned by King Mswati III, to court in
Canada alleging it owes US$3.5 million for the work done on the jet.

The jet was attached by the court in Ontario.

Attachment
is a legal process by which a court
of law, at the request of a person who is owed money, requires property owned
by the person who owes the money to be transferred to the person who is owed
the money, or sold for the benefit of the person who is owed the money.

The legal case has not finished, but the Ontario
Court of Appeal said the jet could be released if Inchatsavane delivered a
letter of credit for US$3.5 million which would be held in trust in a bank
until the court case was concluded.

This guarantee would ensure that if SG Air won the
case money would be available to pay the company the money it was owed.

The money has now been deposited. However, instead
of coming from Inchatsavane or the King personally, it is understood the money
was paid by Swaziland’s Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It this proves to be the case
it would mean the people of Swaziland, rather than the King, who rules the
kingdom as an absolute monarch, would be paying the King’s debt should he lose
the court case.

The case of the unpaid debt returns to the Ontario
Court of Appeal on 11 June 2015.